NDL Forum

cougnix wrote: ↑Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:41 pm Ive been trying to get a PS5 every day. It is such a joke how online orders have gone. There are bots and scalpers that have hundreds of machines and selling them on ebay for double retail. Its madness

I have tried since day 1 in just about every drop that has happened.
I followed tons of different people on Twitter, joined one guys discord server where they announce drops ahead of time by knowing people that work in the different retail chains, etc.
I believe that I finally got one the other day through Walmart.

But like you said, it is a damn joke.

I hope retailers are learning a lot from this years launches. As soon as the drop starts, most of their sites go down because they can't handle the bots hitting their site 1000's of times in a matter of seconds.

Sony direct is the only good one, as they have an online queue it puts you in, so their site has never crashed, but the queue is random, to make it fair, so it doesn't really matter when you get in queue, you can get selected to get one.

Other than that, most sites just put in a reCaptcha that they think is keeping out bots, nope!

I don't use a bot, but I do have an auto refresher extension in Chrome that will refresh a page automatically every 10 seconds or whatever time you set, it can search for words on the page, like add to cart and notify me when those words show up.
I then tried an extension that automatically fills in the reCaptcha for me and gets me past it.

And it still took me over a month.

And I say that I believe I got one, because I won't fully believe it until I receive the tracking number from Walmart.

I thought I ordered one from Khols a couple weeks ago. I got the confirmation number, I got $180 in Khols cash, etc, only to receive a cancellation email the next day. Their site sold 100k units and they only actually had 2k units to sell.

They let everyone keep their khols cash though. So I bought some new luggage and put the $180 towards it.

But it has definitely been a shit show for sure!


GameStop, BestBuy, Antonline, Walmart, Sams Club, Costco, Adorama, Belk, Target, Amazon, NewEgg, B&H Photo, Gamefly, Playstation Direct, I have tried them all!

Their sites crashed almost immediately for me and then when they come back up, out of stock!
I tried their sites, their apps, etc.

Kohl's got me too. My wife ordered one also since I have a deal with a buddy if we could score one for each other to go ahead and buy it. Kohl's then cancelled her kohl's cash, after they sent an email saying we could keep it, because she had the same shipping address as me.

I got random lucky with the Gamestop bundles just before Thanksgiving. Took 90 minutes that night to get it in the cart, get the cart to actually come up, get the checkout to actually work.

Barely have time to play it, but it's fun.

The biggest problem is the damn bots. Sites like Walmart don't care if the bots get them, because then they just re-sell them through Walmart's site and Walmart gets a cut. The other retailers don't care because they sell the inventory immediately and get paid and they get no tangible benefit from ensuring non-bots get the product.

The hoarders need to be cut off by people refusing to pay the 2-3x markup, but that won't happen so they continue to do it with zero reason not to. Personally, I think they all deserved to be kicked in the nuts with a steel-toed boot.

jsence2 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:42 am The biggest problem is the damn bots. Sites like Walmart don't care if the bots get them, because then they just re-sell them through Walmart's site and Walmart gets a cut. The other retailers don't care because they sell the inventory immediately and get paid and they get no tangible benefit from ensuring non-bots get the product.

The hoarders need to be cut off by people refusing to pay the 2-3x markup, but that won't happen so they continue to do it with zero reason not to. Personally, I think they all deserved to be kicked in the nuts with a steel-toed boot.

Retailers do care.
Most have started to implement reCAPTCHAs and other things to help against bots.
You will never stop bots 100%.

And some retailers, like Best Buy, you had to have a Best Buy account on their site and it was 1 system per account. Direct from Sony does the same thing, so did Microsoft.
GameStop does the same thing. It was 1 of each system per account.

Walmart and Target, initially, stopped selling online and did in-store only to stop bots. But then they went back to online.

So to say retailers don't care is simply not true.

Then that's good to see, because early on there were zero captchas, lots of screenshots of people w bot accounts getting 10-20 at a time from one retailer. Gamestop has been the only one that seemed from the start to be focused on making sure it was as fair as possible.

As for Sony/Microsoft, I don't view them as a retailer as they produced them, but their setup was by far the best.

Target is expected to have stock in the coming days. Sounds like they are really following social media to try and stop the scalpers. I ended up getting a Gamestop bundle Friday buts it's in "processing" for a Jan 5 release. I am going to try and get one from Target because it will be a pick up. Problem is the rumor is a 12am release tonight. I have tomorrow off so might pull an all nighter

cougnix wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:29 pm Target is expected to have stock in the coming days. Sounds like they are really following social media to try and stop the scalpers. I ended up getting a Gamestop bundle Friday buts it's in "processing" for a Jan 5 release. I am going to try and get one from Target because it will be a pick up. Problem is the rumor is a 12am release tonight. I have tomorrow off so might pull an all nighter

Isn't Target doing an online release but for in-store pickup?

The_Niddler wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:36 pm

cougnix wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:29 pm Target is expected to have stock in the coming days. Sounds like they are really following social media to try and stop the scalpers. I ended up getting a Gamestop bundle Friday buts it's in "processing" for a Jan 5 release. I am going to try and get one from Target because it will be a pick up. Problem is the rumor is a 12am release tonight. I have tomorrow off so might pull an all nighter

Isn't Target doing an online release but for in-store pickup?

That's the word but they release the stock at stupid ass times. 3-7am est is the rumor

cougnix wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:46 pm

The_Niddler wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:36 pm

cougnix wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:29 pm Target is expected to have stock in the coming days. Sounds like they are really following social media to try and stop the scalpers. I ended up getting a Gamestop bundle Friday buts it's in "processing" for a Jan 5 release. I am going to try and get one from Target because it will be a pick up. Problem is the rumor is a 12am release tonight. I have tomorrow off so might pull an all nighter

Isn't Target doing an online release but for in-store pickup?

That's the word but they release the stock at stupid ass times. 3-7am est is the rumor

The rumor was true. And yes, they do stupid ass releases.

Again, I hope online sales learned a lot about this release and fix it for future online releases.

all this for a new meh at best system. just wait half a year and walk in and get it for the retail price.

Not paying more than retail now. It's actually not that bad, especially since I could do what you mentioned. It's actually fun trying!

nick wrote: ↑Wed Dec 23, 2020 1:50 pm all this for a new meh at best system. just wait half a year and walk in and get it for the retail price.

It was the "thrill of the hunt" for me.

Not like I was going camping for one.
I sat, at home, at my computer desk, clicking a few buttons when they would drop.

While I was working from home, so not like it took time away from my normal life.

Oh boy, my order is preparing for shipment! Just need to get the email to calm my nerves

Have another one coming next Wednesday.

May keep this one depending on post Christmas market.

cougnix wrote: ↑Fri Dec 25, 2020 7:14 pm Oh boy, my order is preparing for shipment! Just need to get the email to calm my nerves

Mine wasn't supposed to get here till Jan 7th, but it got here yesterday.
I installed my Ohio State SkinIt and hooked everything up today.

My son was ecstatic to get the PS4 and a TV in his room.
I bought a SpiderMan SkinIt for the PS4 and controller for him too.

The_Niddler wrote: ↑Fri Dec 25, 2020 9:16 pm

cougnix wrote: ↑Fri Dec 25, 2020 7:14 pm Oh boy, my order is preparing for shipment! Just need to get the email to calm my nerves

Mine wasn't supposed to get here till Jan 7th, but it got here yesterday.
I installed my Ohio State SkinIt and hooked everything up today.

My son was ecstatic to get the PS4 and a TV in his room.
I bought a SpiderMan SkinIt for the PS4 and controller for him too.

What was your order date? 12/12 or 12/18?

12/15 from Walmart.com

Ah, I had heard quite a few received them earlier than what the order originally said